Pathways to Economic Security: Gender and Nonstandard Employment in Contemporary Japan

Abstract

Compiling data from several government surveys, this article identifies key social indicators of economic security associated with nonstandard employment in Japan. Empirical trends of nonstandard employment are contextualized in the development of Japanese coordinated capitalism from the economic boom during the 1960s through the recession of the 1990s to the turn of the 21st Century. A case study of Japan, with its high relative and absolute numbers of nonstandard workers, can reveal what happens to economic security when neoliberalism increasingly encroaches on a highly regulated employment relations system. The dramatic increase of nonstandard employment, particularly among women, is rooted in the design of the institutional architecture supporting pillars of the Japanese employment system and its mode of regulation. Based on interviews and a review of labour laws, the article chronicles regulatory reform aimed at stimulating the growth of nonstandard employment as a cheap source of labor with few benefits and limited employment protections. The final section concludes with a proposal for reframing social policies to advance economic security in Japan.